Art Smith, the former personal chef to Oprah Winfrey, and current owner of Table Fifty Two in Chicago and Art and Soul in DC, is opening two restaurants within the next two weeks and hints he may have one coming soon to the New York area. He also is a fantastic wheel spinner. When he landed on the Truth or Dare challenge, we asked him the same question posed to Franklin Becker:
What keeps you up at night?
Art Smith: Worrying that the party's over. My whole thing is no buzz, no business — So long as there's buzz, there's business. That we live in such a society that buzz is such an important part of what you have to sell, that you have lulls, and that's why I'm so worried and conscientious about what we're selling.
I have two restaurants I'm opening. In Palo Alto, LYFE Kitchen, and then I'm opening a southern restaurant in Atlanta, so there's those two. A lot's going on, lots of buzz. I always thought that when I did a book, the buzz was just three months long. And like I say to a lot of chefs, and a lot of people, if you were discovered, that's one thing, but if you're discovered on TV, they expect to see you on TV. You got to keep it going, and not to run out — I just feel like a lot of times people run out of steam."
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